Contact Client Service

Lot essay

Gilbert and George's Bad Thoughts No. 6 is from the third in their long-celebrated series of hand-tinted silver gelatin photographs. Comprised of an assemblage of individually executed photographs organized within a single picture plane, these early works created for the artists a segue from their exploratory introduction to art into their now revered method of modern photography.

Bad Thoughts No. 6 embodies Gilbert and George's groundbreaking approach to both self-portraiture and the innovative use of dyes during the photographic process. Unlike the later works which offer the viewer a kaleidoscope of florescent colors, Bad Thoughts No. 6 simplifies the harmony of colors by juxtaposing striations of reds against gradations of blacks and whites within each cell of the four-part grid. The grid-like mosaic allows the work to exist individually, but more powerfully when arranged as a single object. When assembled, the work creates a cohesive dialogue between each part of the whole.

The ominous tone of the work is insinuated immediately both by the artist's visual vocabulary as well as by their insertion text, Bad Thoughts, into the lower right quadrant. Bad Thoughts conjures for the viewer an underlying tension between the two artists as they stare complacently out the windows of their East End studio. Almost voyeuristically, the viewer watches as the two stand in deep contemplation. The use of self-portraiture is a staple of Gilbert & George's oeuvre. Referring to themselves as "living sculptures," they insert their own images as the primary subjects, always pictured stoically posed and dressed in their iconic three button suits. However, never more than in these early works do you see the dark introspection projected in Bad Thoughts No. 6.

We came to a point where we could actually say this is all getting more and more mental - more a matter of thinking and madness, both of which are involved with the head. We got used to the idea of both meanings of the word being attached to our work, so that we were no longer embarrassed or tempted to lose faith (Gilbert cited in R. Ratcliff Gilbert and George: The Complete Pictures 1971-1985, New York, 1986, p. 24).